The New England Revolution kicked off its SuperLiga defense in style with a 4-2 victory over Santos Laguna at a rain-drenched Gillette Stadium.
Jeff Larentowicz opened the scoring with a low drive after 38 minutes. Santos responded with goals by Matias Vuoso and Juan Pablo Rodriguez shortly after halftime to seize the lead. New England claimed victory after goals by Kenny Mansally, Jay Heaps and Kheli Dube overturned the Santos lead.
New England captain Steve Ralston passed a fitness test prior to the match and took his place in the starting lineup after rolling his ankle in training this week. With Taylor Twellman (neck) and Shalrie Joseph (knee) ruled out, Kheli Dube started up top. Mauricio Castro (hamstring) and Gabriel Badilla (back) remain sidelined.
After going out in the group stages last year, Santos Laguna named a strong lineup to face a side that beat them 1-0 in last year's competition. Vuoso was joined in the lineup by Argentine schemer Walter Jimenez and former Mexican international goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez.
Both sides struggled to work themselves into the match during the early stages as the rain pelted down and made the surface particularly slippery. Half-chances dominated through those early stages with Jimenez flashing his volley over the bar before Dube headed the remnants of a Darrius Barnes long throw over the bar.
Although New England enjoyed the better of the possession, the first chance fell to the Mexican visitors. The ball bounced around in the penalty area on 35 minutes with the final chance falling to Vuoso. The Mexican international just hooked his shot outside of the near post.
The opener arrived on 38 minutes. Kevin Alston dropped the ball off for Larentowicz in space outside the penalty area. The defensive midfielder hit a heavy shot to the far post that Sanchez couldn't reach in time to push around the post.
New England lost Ralston shortly after the goal after he tweaked his right hamstring prior to the goal. Mike Videira came on in his place as the match proceeded into the halftime interval.
Santos started the second stanza brightly and converted twice inside the first ten minutes to spark the match to life.
The visitors had Barnes and Emmanuel Osei to thank for their opener. Osei's clearing header ended up in the center of the Revolution penalty area. Barnes couldn't corral the difficult ball and the loose ball fell to Vuoso. The Mexican international twisted and turned Barnes before firing home past Matt Reis to level proceedings.
Vuoso turned from finisher to provider four minutes later. A pullback ended up on Vuoso's foot outside the penalty area and Vuoso shuffled it onto Rodriguez's foot. The former San Jose player did well to curl it to the far post to give Santos the lead.
Down a goal and down their three best attacking players, New England could have folded up shop but instead responded with two goals in three minutes to turn all of the momentum back towards the Revolution.
Mansally tapped home after a sweeping Revolution move. Jay Heaps played a ball through for Sainey Nyassi down the right. Nyassi's cross ended up on Dube's foot. His tame shot should have been handled by Sanchez, but the Santos keeper weakly palmed in front of goal for Mansally to poke home.
Heaps grabbed the winner in the 63rd minute. Dube collected a wayward corner kick on the far side of the penalty area and fired towards goal. The effort deflected off two Santos defenders on the way toward goal and squeaked out towards the far post. Heaps reacted first and fired home in front of the raucous Fort.
With the match now at full boil. Santos almost engineered an immediate reply two minutes later. Daniel Luduena surged into the penalty area and forced a fine, one-handed save from Reis. The rebound ended up back on Luduena's foot, but Pat Phelan made a good recovery tackle to direct the ball away from danger.
Dube made the result safe eight minutes from time. Mansally's free kick from the left side eluded everyone at the front post and fell comfortably for Dube. The Zimbabwean took the dangerous free kick and finished sumptuously with a volley as he was falling down to the ground to cap off the Revolution victory with some style.
Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com
